Ivoirian journalist attacked by minister's security detail

Lagos,
Nigeria, September 12, 2012--An Ivoirian government security detail assaulted a
journalist covering the eviction of a senior official's family on Friday,
seizing his equipment and leaving him bleeding and bruised, according to news
reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the attack and calls on
authorities to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

A police officer, a
military soldier, and agents in plainclothes attacked Anderson Diédri, a reporter
for the private daily Le Nouveau Courrier, as he interviewed and photographed a woman and her five children as
they were being evicted from their home in Abidjan, according to local
journalists and news reports. The woman's husband, Albert Toikeusse Mabri,
the minister of planning and development, had
sought the eviction after filing for divorce in June.

Mabri had sent the assailants
to supervise the eviction, even though an appeals court had nullified an
eviction order issued earlier by a lower court, news reports said.

Diédri said that he had
identified himself as a journalist to his assailants, but the men continued to
punch and kick him, leaving him with a bloody lip and bruises on his body,
according to news reports. He said the men had also seized his camera and mobile
phone, news reports said. One of Mabri's aides later returned the camera to the
journalist, but all of the photographs had been deleted, Stéphane Bahi, the
editor of Le Nouveau Courrier, told CPJ.

No one has been arrested
for the assault, according to local journalists. Bahi told CPJ that the newspaper planned to file an
official complaint.

Edmond Doua, the
director of communications to Mabri, told CPJ that the minister had not ordered
the assault. Doua also said that the images had been deleted because the
journalist had taken photographs of a private affair without any authorization.
He said he had personally apologized to Le Nouveau Courrier and secured
the release of the journalist's equipment.

"We
condemn the assault on Anderson Diédri in connection with his reporting on a public official,"
said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita from New York. "If Ivoirian
minister Albert Toikeusse Mabri did not order the attack, it is all the more
imperative that he do everything in his power to identify Diédri's assailants
and bring them to justice."

For
more data and analysis on the Ivory Coast, visit CPJ's Ivory Coast page here.